The invention relates to an agricultural harvesting system comprising an agricultural harvesting machine.
The related art (EP 1 407 654 B1) describes agricultural harvesting systems comprising an agricultural harvesting machine which includes a sensor unit for detecting the constituents in the agricultural crop. The sensor unit comprises a sensor which operates on the basis of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR sensor) and past which a crop stream can be conveyed. A crop stream is understood to mean, in this case, crop which has been harvested by means of the harvesting machine and which is transported through a conveyor channel of the harvesting machine. The NIR sensor is usually situated in a wall of the conveyor channel in this case and detects the intensity of the light reflected by the particles in the crop stream, which are flowing past, in a wavelength-resolved manner. In this case, the crop stream is acted upon by broadband, i.e., white, light. In this way, the individual light-stimulated modes of oscillation of individual constituents of the crop to be identified, which take effect via absorption, diffusion, or extinction, can be detected.
NIR sensors have proven to be particularly advantageous for the detection of constituents of the crop that are relevant for an addition of an ensilage agent. Ensilage agents are used for the preparation or handling of crop, in particular, in order to improve the fermentation process in the silo. During the harvesting process, an ensilage agent unit generally mixes an acid with water in a ratio that is dependent on the crop properties and injects the mixture into the crop stream.
In order to control the ensilage agent unit, the crop stream data measured by the NIR sensor are fed to a data processing unit which calculates the particular content of the constituents of interest (e.g., sugar content, protein content, crude ash portion, and/or raw fiber portion). The data processing unit then generates suitable control data on the basis of the crop stream data, via which the ensilage agent unit and, therefore, the addition of ensilage agent into the crop stream is controlled.
Independently thereof, it is also known with respect to harvesting machines to adjust and control various agricultural working units thereof, wherein the adjustment or control of the working units takes place on the basis of data from various further sensors. In this case, an agricultural working unit is understood to mean, in particular, an agricultural work-assisting or -performing component of the harvesting machine that mechanically acts on the crop. In the case of a forage harvester, these are, for example, the header, the cutting cylinder, feed devices, conveying and accelerating devices for the crop, the lifting mechanism for adjusting the height of the header, or the like.
With respect to the related art, it is problematic that the plurality of sensors necessary for controlling the different processes of the harvesting machine is associated with a relatively great complexity of installation and maintenance.